I was complaining about this technology company that has invented software that will write stories — journalism — when you input data. As I was lamenting the thought of becoming an obsolete human, my brother — who plays the drums — rightly pointed out that drum machines have been around for decades, yet humans take up playing drums every day.

Driverless racing would be pointless to anyone other than the software engineers who developed the cars. I doubt anyone would watch it.

driver matter a bit less in Bonneville. when was the last time you even know who is driving what. it is the car people care about.

even Nurbergring is the same. People cares GTR just went 7:15.05. nobody cares who drove it.

Motorsport (not sure if you can call it that) might even expand due to self-driving cars.
1. old guy that has no chance of being competitive can now compete as well as 20 year old.
2. risk averse people can now compete, without chance of dying.
3. cost will ultimately be less. big chunk of racing budget is safety related. no longer applies

I don't think teaching a car to drive around a race track has anything to do with driverless racing. It's developing the tech to have self driving cars drive to the limit of adhesion. Think swerving for deer or avoiding road debris. I'm sure once we have become used to driverless cars picking up our groceries and optimized traffic algorithms we won't want it any other way. Just be happy we are still in the age we can buy some simple used sports car and tinker and track them. A generation or two won't even know what they missed.

Edit: They will also look back and think "look at all those caveman that killed each other in car accidents". :P